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She smiled beatifically at me. “Oh, hey. You’re back.”
I offered to help her set up the grill while she busied herself with the food. To my embarrassment, I initially fumbled over the whole thing because my mind was still on Amanda the whole time.
I gave out a loud yelp when my finger landed on a piece of hot coal.
Great. Just great. I might end up burning the whole house down if I keep this up!
“Umm… Ollie, I wasn’t planning on eating human meat,” Mom laughed. “You can stop grilling yourself, you know. I’m trying to go vegan.”
I smiled sheepishly at her. “Sorry, Mom. I was distracted for a moment.”
“It’s a little lonely without Elle now, but at least I have you all to myself,” she smiled, her eyes twinkling. “She called me earlier just to make sure you hadn’t done anything she thinks you might regret.”
I winced, recalling that I had dropped by the kindergarten and only accomplished making Amanda angrier at me.
I was pretty sure Elle meant preciselythat.
Whether Amanda told her something or not, my sister seemed to have some sort of special sense that I was getting myself in trouble again.
Unfortunately, that special gift of hers was usually employed to rub the injury in my face, instead of helping me out.
“Well, I can’t get in any more trouble when I’ll be leaving in a few days,” I shrugged helplessly as I helped Mom arrange the meat on the grill.
“I do wish you would stay longer,” she sighed helplessly. “Now, it’s just gonna be me and my crystals. You kids didn’t even leave me with a dog to keep me company.”
“Aw, Mom. Don’t worry. I’ll get you a dog before I leave,” I grinned at her. “Then you can hang a bunch of crystals around his neck and he’ll have the fanciest collar in all of Georgetown.”
She laughed at that. “You know, they might end up kidnapping him just to get his collar.”
“Dognapping, Mom,” I corrected her. “Besides, they’d never get to him because your crystals would protect him from all harm.”
I guess Mom has never heard of a microchip?I wondered to myself.
“True,” she shook her head ruefully. “It’s going to be awfully quiet now, without you and Elle keeping me on my toes. It seems like my crystals are finally working to bring me peace of mind.”
We both laughed at that, poking more fun at each other as we watched the food on the grill. When the food was ready, we ate together in the garden like we did when I first arrived.
Mom was already in her fifties, but she looked pretty young for her age. She didn’t believe in dressing like an “old biddy”—as she put it—but her fashion choices were still age-appropriate, despite the mandatory matching crystals. Sometimes, I wondered if she chose her clothes based on the rocks she was planning to wear that day.
After dinner, I cleaned up the grill while Mom took the plates back to the kitchen. I smiled a little sadly when I realized that I was going to miss all of this—hanging out with Mom and teasing each other—when I got back to London.
I sat back in the garden chair and allowed my thoughts to consume me for a moment, when Mom came out with a heavy book that looked like it belonged to the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts library.
“Oh no, Mom, notthat!” I groaned when I realizedexactlywhat it was.
She smiled innocently at me as she sat down and opened it up. Instantly, I was assailed by the nostalgic scent of embarrassment.
“You were such a cute baby, Ollie,” she said, pointing to a picture of me when I was a baby.
I swear, naked baby pictures should be banned!
There was no way I was cute in that picture, dressed in my birthday suit, my eyes wide like some kind of poor zoo animal who had been caught by surprise by a stupid tourist’s camera flash.
Except that it was Mom’s camera flash that caused my expression in thatcutephoto.
I remembered how Elle used to howl with laughter whenever this picture resurfaced. She’d even showed it to Amanda once, just so “she’d know what she was getting into”.
Yup, my little sister, the devil.
